My Journey Towards Jihad

My Journey Towards Jihad is the 19th counter narrative video clip in the ICSVE Breaking the ISIS Brand series. It features Abu Albani, a Kosovar foreign fighter who went twice to Syria; first to join and fight with the Free Syrian Army and later to join and fight for ISIS. Abu Albani was interviewed in Kosovo prison in June 2016 by Anne Speckhard, with Haris Fazilu serving as a translator and My Journey Towards Jihad was produced by Zack Baddorf and ICSVE staff.

Abu Albani’s motivations for traveling to Syria for the first time were similar to many among the 850 young men and women who left from the Western Balkans, with many of them having experienced war in their own homeland. He had witnessed the horrors of war firsthand as a young boy, and also remembered that Americans had come to their rescue, which left him with a sense of responsibility towards others suffering under war. Watching videos of Assad’s atrocities and hearing about the call for foreign fighters to come and assist Sunni Arabs, Abu Albani heeded it—probably out of truly idealistic motives.

Returned to Kosovo after some time fighting in Syria, he ended on a terrorism watch list and had to talk his way past Kosovar border guards when he decided to once again travel to Syria—the second time to join ISIS and assist in building of their so-called Caliphate. Abu Albani understood he could play an important role within the Albanian leadership already there. Once in ISIS, he fought on a daily basis, including fighting against the Shaitat tribe in a battle.

Abu Albani is proud of his time in ISIS, but also admitted he became disillusioned as he saw how the Albanian widows in his group were being forced by ISIS-mandated laws to either suffer isolated at home without food and basic needs or agree to remarry other fighters. Abu Albani also became highly distressed by the plight of an eight-year-old child who was the same age he’d been during the Kosovo war and who had been brought by his father to Syria without his mother’s knowledge or permission.

According to Abu Albani, he argued with ISIS leaders about these issues, and unable to get them to enact justice, as he believed it should occur, he defected from ISIS by paying a smuggler to take him out across the Turkish border. Perhaps to ensure his own freedom back in Kosovo, or out of truly humanitarian motives, Abu Albani brought the boy out with his wife as they escaped ISIS.

While Abu Albani risked everything to defect from a group he became disillusioned with due to their mistreatment of women and children, as he claimed, he became angered after being convicted and put in prison in Kosovo for participating in a terrorist group. Unsure if he made the right decision to leave—given his current prison sentence—he remains ambivalent on that score. But as he states, he doesn’t regret rescuing the boy, who most likely in his mind represents his younger self.

The transcript of My Journey Towards Jihad is below and the video clip can be viewed here:

My Journey Towards Jihad

0:02 In reality, only recently did I start believing in the ideology that promotes fighting

0:08 and jihad to create an Islamic state to set up a shariah land guided by Allah’s words.

0:19 When the videos came out about the war in Syria,

0:22 the first hatred towards Assad started in our mosques here in Kosovo.

0:26 Imams in our mosques started lecturing about unity during Friday prayers

0:32 and appealed to the masses to go and help those who were being oppressed,

0:36 against Assad and other dictators.

0:37 ABU ALBANI

Former ISIS Soldier

0:39 That’s how it all started.

0:41 Facebook was the primary source of videos for me.

0:48 Even though I didn’t understand the Arabic language at the time.

0:50 I understood nothing actually.

0:53 What’s important is that I saw the war

0:54 and I immediately had a feeling for the war…

0:57 a desire to fight.

1:01 Abu Albani connected with people on Facebook who helped explain how he could join the fight in Syria.

1:10 [Before] I believed in traditional Islam and practiced Islam like all others.

1:15 But over time, I came to know more people and got drawn into “extremism.”

1:27 To make connections with people,

1:31 I followed Lavdrim Muhaxheri [an Albanian ISIS leader] and other Albanians,

1:36 and [watched] the videos of Albanians in Syria that emerged.

1:39 [They said] the people of Syria need other Muslims to come help them to achieve Allah’s will.

1:47 This was when my journey towards jihad started.

1:55 They took us to a training camp to complete exercises/training.

1:59 Then they taught us how to use weapons and gave us religious training.

2:06 Glory be to Allah, [the Syrian forces] would usually attack us with rockets.

2:10 We would see them at night as they would light up the whole sky.

2:16 They would attack with heavier weapons.

2:18 So, we would have to find shelters to hide.

2:22 Abu Albani says he returned to Kosovo when the fighting died down and he “got bored.”

2:27 When I returned to Kosovo, I tried staying away from jihad-related matters.

2:33 I wanted to get back to my life I had prior to Syria, but I couldn’t.

Anne Speckhard, Ph.D. is Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine and has also taught the Psychology of Terrorism for the Security Studies Department in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. She is the Director of the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism. Dr. Speckhard has been working in the field of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) since the 1980’s and has extensive experience working in Europe, the Middle East and the former Soviet Union.

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About ICSVE

The International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism (ICSVE) is an action based, interdisciplinary, research center working on psychosocial, cultural, political, economic, ideological, and technological topics impacting global peace and security.